Russia destroys 500 tonnes of sanctioned food over week — watchdog

The destroyed food was smuggled into Russia despite the ban Russia imposed in response to Western sanctions

MOSCOW, August 12 /TASS/. Russia has destroyed 480 tonnes of embargoed food of plant origin and 41 tonnes of products of animal origin since August 6, the Russian agricultural watchdog said in its report.

All in all, 500 tonnes of food products that fall under Russia’s anti-Western sanctions has been discarded and destroyed over the past week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on destroying food products under the Russian embargo on July 29, 2015. The Federal Customs Service, Rosselkhoznadzor and Rospotrebnadzor, a body, which protects consumers’ rights, got down to implementing the president’s order on August 6.

Earlier on Wednesday, Rosselkhoznadzor’s head Sergey Dankvert suggested using the same methods to get rid of counterfeit food products produced inside Russia. His aide Alexey Alexeyenko told TASS the proposal to destroy counterfeit food alongside with banned imported food was prompted by appearance of growing number of counterfeit foods in Russian retail trade.

Russian Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev has backed up the idea.